vehaag@crocus.uwaterloo.ca (Viktor Haag) (11/04/90)
Well, I got a few responses to my question about turning my den Cube into a full blown node. A lot of people were interested in the answer, and here is what I have been able to find out. Apologies to everyone out there who winces at my obviously naive understanding of the whole thing. Perhaps, though, I am not the only ignorant one here, and my plain English explanation will help. As to turning your NeXT into an internet site or node - forget it. If we can think of the main line of the net as the spinal cord, then only big institutions that cand demonstrate a need for a direct connection can connect directly, and mostly this turns out to be Universities. Even if you could convince the powers that be that you deserve to be a 'main nerve', the hardware needed to ensure that you could keep up to speed with the transmission rates of the 'spinal cord' would be difficult to obtain and prohibitive in cost. The optimal solution it seems is to obtain an account at a University or other centre that *is* a 'main nerve' and use a modem to connect to them. Keep in mind though, that in this case, you will be a dumb terminal of the machine that you connect to, so if it ain't another NeXT, you may have a pretty ugly interface. There are probably hundreds of folks out there that are wincing at my 'simple minded' explanation of my perceptions of the situation. If any of you gurus could enlighten the rest of us and fill in the details that we are unable to fill in, I for one would be very appreciative. vik -- "We murder to dissect" Wordsworth
bob@MorningStar.Com (Bob Sutterfield) (11/06/90)
In article <1990Nov3.215736.518@watdragon.waterloo.edu> vehaag@crocus.uwaterloo.ca (Viktor Haag) writes:
...only big institutions that can demonstrate a need for a direct
connection can connect directly, and mostly this turns out to be
Universities ... the hardware needed to ensure that you could keep
up to speed with the transmission rates of the 'spinal cord' would
be difficult to obtain and prohibitive in cost.
There are several vendors in the business of selling IP connectivity.
Their service rates can turn out to be quite reasonable, even for a
small site. The hardware required can be anything you feel you need,
beginning with a 9600bps dialup SLIP or PPP connection and progressing
through T1 or better, if you want to pay for it. You'll have the same
services as your University brethren, just slower. Talk to
info@psi.com about PSInet, info@uunet.uu.net about AlterNet, or
postmaster@nic.cerf.net about CERFnet. There may be others that I
can't name off the top of my head.
Connectivity isn't as elitist, nor the picture as bleak, as you
suggest.